A Further Contribution to the Study of the Mortuary Customs of the North American IndiansYarrow, H. C. (Harry Crécy)
History
A Further Contribution to the Study of the Mortuary Customs of the North American Indians
Yarrow, H. C. (Harry Crécy)
Indians of North America -- Funeral customs and rites
With this I furnish you the outlines of such graves which I have
drawn. Fig. 25 shows that at present only one pair of posts remains.
I have supplied the other pair as they evidently were.
[Illustration: FIG. 26.--Tent on Scaffold.]
Figure 26 is a recent grave at another place. That part which is
covered with board and cloth incloses the coffin which is on a
scaffold.
As the Indians have been more in contact with the whites they have
learned to bury in the ground, and this is the most common method at
the present time. There are cemeteries everywhere where Indians have
resided any length of time. After a person has died a coffin is made
after the cheaper kinds of American ones, the body is placed in it,
and also with it a number of articles, chiefly cloth or clothes,
though occasionally money. I lately heard of a child being buried
with a twenty-dollar gold piece in each hand and another in its
month, but I am not able to vouch for the truth of it. As a general
thing, money is too valuable with them for this purpose and there is
too much temptation for some one to rob the grave when this is left
in it.
[Illustration: FIG. 27.--House-Burial.]
[Illustration: FIG. 28.--House-Burial.]
(_d_) The grave is dug after the style of the whites and the coffin
then placed in it. After it has been covered it is customary though
not universal, to build some kind of an inclosure over it or around
it in the shape of a small house, shed, lodge or fence. These are
from 2 to 12 feet high, from 2 to 6 feet wide, and from 5 to 12 feet
long. Some of these are so well inclosed that it is impossible to
see within and some are quite open. Occasionally a window is placed
in the front side. Sometimes these enclosures are covered with
cloth, which is generally white, sometimes partly covered, and some
have none. Around the grave, both outside and inside of the
inclosure, various articles are placed, as guns, canoes, dishes,
pails, cloth, sheets, blankets, beads, tubs, lamps, bows, mats, and
occasionally a roughly-carved human image rudely painted. It is said
that around and in the grave of one Clallam chief, buried a few
years ago, $500 worth of such things were left. Most of these
articles are cut or broken so as to render them valueless to man and
to prevent their being stolen. Poles are also often erected, from 10
to 30 feet long, on which American flags, handkerchiefs, clothes,
and cloths of various colors are hung. A few graves have nothing of
this kind. On some graves these things are renewed every year or
two. This depends mainly on the number of relatives living and the
esteem in which they hold the deceased.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account